Saint José Gregorio Hernández

José Gregorio Hernández was born on October 26, 1864, in Isnotú, in the Venezuelan Andes. He studied medicine in Caracas and then in Paris and Berlin, and brought modern microscopy, bacteriology and experimental physiology to the Central University of Venezuela, where he was a respected professor.

A deeply prayerful Franciscan tertiary, he twice tried to enter religious life, including the Carthusians in Italy, but his health and his spiritual directors sent him back to serve as a doctor. He cared for the poor without charge and often paid for their medicine himself. On June 29, 1919, after buying medicine for an elderly patient in Caracas, he was struck by a car and died. Saint John Paul II declared him Venerable in 1986, he was beatified in 2021, and Pope Leo XIV canonized him on October 19, 2025.

Venezuelans have prayed to "el Médico de los Pobres" for a century: his image in a hat and dark suit is in homes, hospitals and taxis, and families leave thanks for healings at his tomb in the Church of La Candelaria in Caracas and at his birthplace in Isnotú.

His canonization was celebrated across Venezuela and by Venezuelans abroad, especially in Miami, Madrid and Bogotá. Many people ask his intercession before surgery and give thanks with white flowers.